Techniques for providing an augmented reality view

ABSTRACT

Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for providing an augmented reality view in which eye movements are employed to identify items of possible interest for which indicators are visually presented in the augmented reality view. An apparatus to present an augmented reality view includes a processor component; a presentation component for execution by the processor component to visually present images captured by a camera on a display, and to visually present an indicator identifying an item of possible interest in the captured images on the display overlying the visual presentation of the captured images; and a correlation component for execution by the processor component to track eye movement to determine a portion of the display gazed at by an eye, and to correlate the portion of the display to the item of possible interest. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments described herein generally relate to providing an augmentedreality view of surroundings of a current location based on tracking eyemovements to distinguish items of possible interest from other items inthe augmented reality view.

BACKGROUND

The use of viewing devices equipped with location detectors, a cameraand a display to provide an augmented reality view of surroundings isgaining in acceptance. Such a viewing device employs various locationdetection techniques (e.g., global positioning system satellite signals,a magnetic compass, etc.) to determine its current location and thecurrent orientation of its camera relative to the surface of the Earth,and to request information concerning items in its immediatesurroundings. Such a device then visually presents a view of thesurroundings as captured by its camera in which that view is overlainwith indicators that identify items in the view, thereby creating anaugmented reality view.

In essence, such a viewing device becomes a “virtual window pane”through which an operator views his or her surroundings in a manner thatenables items to be located and identified more quickly using theindicators of those items that are added to the view of thosesurroundings. By way of example, such a viewing device may be employedto find such items as restaurants, restrooms, hotel accommodations,tourist attractions, etc.

Unfortunately, current viewing devices providing such augmented realityviews do not take into account what items are likely of interest to anoperator at any given time. As a result, such viewing devices tend toprovide an augmented reality view filled with too many indicators ofitems in the immediate surroundings. To an operator, this reduces theutility of the augmented reality view by essentially “cluttering” theview with so many indicators of items that are not of interest that theoperator is hard pressed to pick out the indicators of items that are ofinterest and is hard pressed to actually see much of the surroundings inthe augmented reality view.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of an augmented reality viewing system.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate perspective views of a viewing deviceaccording to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates operation of a viewing device according to anembodiment.

FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C each illustrate a visual presentation of anaugmented reality view according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a visual presentation of an augmented reality viewaccording to another embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of an embodiment of an augmented realitysystem viewing system.

FIGS. 7-8 each illustrate a logic flow according to an embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates a processing architecture according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for providingan augmented reality view in which eye movements are employed toidentify items of possible interest for which indicators are visuallypresented in the augmented reality view. Various location detectiontechniques are employed to determine the current location of a viewingdevice and the current orientation of its camera relative to thatlocation, and to retrieve information identifying items located in thesurroundings in the vicinity of the current location. As an operatorlooks at a display of the viewing device to view the surroundingsthrough the camera and the display, an eye tracker of the viewing devicedetermines where on the display the operator is looking to enable adetermination of what items in the surroundings may be of interest.Visual indicators of those identified items of possible interest arethen visually presented on the display in a manner that overlies theimages captured by the camera.

The location detection techniques may include one or more of globalpositioning system (GPS) satellite signal reception, detection ofdirection and/or distance of wireless access points (APs), a magneticcompass to detect the direction of Earth's magnetic field, anaccelerometer to detect the direction of the force of gravity, etc. Thedetection of orientation of the camera may include detection of theangle of elevation of the camera in addition to detecting its horizontalorientation (e.g., its compass heading of its horizontal orientation).

In retrieving information concerning items located in the surroundingsof (in the vicinity of) the current location, the viewing device maytransmit its current location to a server, but not its orientation, andreceive information concerning items located throughout a full circularrange of directions from the current location. A subset of those itemsmay initially be selected for possible visual presentation based onwhich ones are in the field of view of the camera, given the currentorientation of the camera relative to the current location.Alternatively, the viewing device may additionally transmit the currentorientation of its camera and/or an indication of the angular width ofthe camera's field of view to the server to enable the server to limitthe information concerning items that it transmits to the viewing deviceto only items in the surroundings that are also within the field of viewof the camera.

Regardless of the exact manner in which items are initially selected forpossible visual presentation of indicators based on the field of view ofthe camera, the selection of items is then further limited based on theeye movements of an operator of the viewing device. Eye movements of anoperator are tracked over time to determine what portion of the displaythe operator gazes at more than other portions, and that determinationof what portion of the display is gazed at is used to identify whichitem(s) in the surroundings in the field of view of the camera may be ofinterest to the operator.

Upon identification of items of possible interest to the operator in thefield of view of the camera, indicators of those items are visuallypresented on the display in a manner that overlies the visualpresentation of the field of view of the camera. Such indicators mayinclude text and/or graphical indicators that identify those items tothe operator (e.g., names and/or logos of businesses, identification ofservices offered, street addresses, etc.). A threshold minimum amount oftime for an operator to gaze at a portion of the display may be used asa trigger to commence the visual presentation of one or more indicatorsof items of possible interest to ensure that such indicators are notfalsely triggered to be visually presented as a result of a glance.Alternatively or additionally, a delay in ceasing to visually presentone or more indicators of objects of possible interest may be imposed toensure that cessation of such visual presentations is not falselytriggered by a momentary glance away to some other portion of thedisplay and/or to an object other than the display.

In some embodiments, the indicators of items of possible interest may bearranged on the display at locations adjacent to (e.g., surrounding) theportion of the display at which the operator is determined to be gazingso as to not obscure the operator's view of the surroundings visible atthat portion of the display. In other embodiments, one or more of theindicators of items of possible interest may be visually presented withsome degree of transparency such that the operator is able to lookthrough such indicators to continue gazing at that portion of thedisplay without interruption. It should be noted operation of a viewingdevice, as described herein, could be indoors or outdoors. Thus, thescenery in the surroundings in the vicinity of the current location ofthe viewing device could be indoor scenery (e.g., building or houseinteriors, pieces of furniture, objects on shelves or tables, pieces ofart or inventory in a storage area, etc.) or outdoor scenery (e.g.,natural or man-made outdoor features, buildings or mountains, roads orrivers, geological features or monuments, etc.). Regardless of what thescenery in the surroundings is made up of, images of it are captured ofit, and visually presented on with indicators of one or more items ofpossible interest in that scenery within the field of view of a camera.

With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein,portions of the detailed description which follows may be presented interms of program procedures executed on a computer or network ofcomputers. These procedural descriptions and representations are used bythose skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance oftheir work to others skilled in the art. A procedure is here, andgenerally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operationsleading to a desired result. These operations are those requiringphysical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though notnecessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic oroptical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined,compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times,principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals asbits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or thelike. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to those quantities.

Further, these manipulations are often referred to in terms, such asadding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mentaloperations performed by a human operator. However, no such capability ofa human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of theoperations described herein that form part of one or more embodiments.Rather, these operations are machine operations. Useful machines forperforming operations of various embodiments include general purposedigital computers as selectively activated or configured by a computerprogram stored within that is written in accordance with the teachingsherein, and/or include apparatus specially constructed for the requiredpurpose. Various embodiments also relate to apparatus or systems forperforming these operations. These apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purpose or may include a general purposecomputer. The required structure for a variety of these machines will beapparent from the description given.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numeralsare used to refer to like elements throughout. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It maybe evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced withoutthese specific details. In other instances, well known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate adescription thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives within the scope of the claims.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an augmented realityviewing system 1000 incorporating one or more of a location server 300and a viewing device 500. Each of these computing devices may be any ofa variety of types of computing device, including without limitation, adesktop computer system, a data entry terminal, a laptop computer, anetbook computer, a tablet computer, a handheld personal data assistant,a smartphone, a digital camera, a body-worn computing deviceincorporated into clothing, a computing device integrated into a vehicle(e.g., a car, a bicycle, a wheelchair, etc.), a server, a cluster ofservers, a server farm, etc.

As depicted, subsets of these computing devices 300 and 500 exchangesignals associated with determining a current location and orientationof a camera, and associated with providing information identifying itemsin the vicinity of the current location via a network 999. However, oneor more of these computing devices may exchange other data entirelyunrelated to locations or identifying items at locations with each otherand/or with still other computing devices (not shown) via the network999. In various embodiments, the network 999 may be a single networkpossibly limited to extending within a single building or otherrelatively limited area, a combination of connected networks possiblyextending a considerable distance, and/or may include the Internet.Thus, the network 999 may be based on any of a variety (or combination)of communications technologies by which signals may be exchanged,including without limitation, wired technologies employing electricallyand/or optically conductive cabling, and wireless technologies employinginfrared, radio frequency or other forms of wireless transmission.

In various embodiments, the viewing device 500 incorporates one or moreof a processor component 550, a storage 560, a compass 510, an elevationsensor 515, controls 520, a camera 570, an eye tracker 575, a display580 and an interface 590 to couple the viewing device 500 to the network999. The storage 560 stores one or more of a collection routine 540, alocation data 530, a gaze data 533, a device data 535, a visual data537, a viewing routine 545 and a location data 330. Each of thecollection routine 540 and the viewing routine 545 incorporates asequence of instructions operative on the processor component 550 in itsrole as a main processor component of the viewing device 500 toimplement logic to perform various functions.

In executing the collection routine 540, the processor component 550operates one or more of the interface 590, the compass 510 and theelevation sensor 515 to determine the current location of the viewingdevice 500 and the current orientation of the field of view of thecamera 570 relative to current location, storing one or both as thelocation data 530. The processor component 550 may operate the interface590 to receive wireless radio frequency signals transmitted by globalpositioning system (GPS) satellites orbiting the Earth to determine thecurrent location. Alternatively or additionally, the processor component550 may operate the interface 590 to receive wireless radio frequencysignals of network access points (APs) of one or more networks (e.g.,the network 999) to determine the current location. More specifically,the processor component 550 may operate the interface 590 to determinedirection and/or distance of APs from the viewing device 500, as well asto receive identifying information from APs, and may request informationof a server (e.g., the server 300) correlating identifying informationof various APs with their location.

The processor component 550 may monitor the compass 510 to recurringlyreceive indications of the current orientation. Alternatively oradditionally, the processor component 550 may monitor the elevationsensor 515 to recurringly receive indications of the elevation of thecamera 570 relative to a horizontal plane at the current location (e.g.,the angle at which the camera 570 may be aimed upwards or downwards froma horizontal plane). It is envisioned that the camera 570 is co-locatedin a common casing of the viewing device 500 with the compass 510 and/orthe elevation sensor 515 such that an orientation of that casingnecessarily links the orientation of the camera 570 to one or both ofthe compass 510 and the elevation sensor 515. The elevation sensor 515may be based on any of a variety of technologies to detect anorientation relative to the direction of the force of gravity at thecurrent location, including and not limited to, one or moreaccelerometers and/or a gyroscope. Such an accelerometer or gyroscopemay be implemented with micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)technology.

In executing the collection routine 540, the processor component 550also operates the camera 570 to recurringly capture images of scenery inthe portion of the surroundings in the vicinity of the current locationthat falls within the field of view of the camera 570, given the currentorientation of the camera 570. The processor component 550 recurringlystores the captured images as the visual data 537. Indications of thesize of the field of view of the camera 570 may be stored as part of thedevice data 535. In some embodiments, the size of the field of view maybe specified as one or more angular measurements of height and/or widthof the field of degrees. In other embodiments, the height and/or widthmay be specified as linear measurements taken at a specified distancefrom the camera 570.

In executing the viewing routine 545, the processor component 550recurringly retrieves the captures images of the visual data 537 andvisually presents them on the display 580. In some embodiments, theviewing routine 545 may be a separate and distinct routine from thecollection routine 540. In such embodiments, the viewing routine 545 maybe one of multiple viewing routines available for use with the viewingdevice 500, and the collection routine 540 may be employed by one ormore of those multiple viewing routines to support their executionthrough the provision of one or more of the pieces of informationcollected by the collection routine 540. More specifically, thecollection routine 540 may be implemented as a set of executablecomponents of a library configured to support the execution of any of avariety of viewing routines via function calls made to those componentsfrom within those viewing routines. In other embodiments, the collectionroutine 540 and the viewing routine 545 may be a single common routine.

FIGS. 2A and 2B depict perspective views of opposing sides of an examplephysical configuration of the viewing device 500 implemented as a “smartphone” or small “tablet computer” in which the display 580 makes up muchof one side and the camera 570 is disposed on an opposite side. Itshould be noted that despite this depiction of a specific physicalconfiguration of the viewing device 500, other embodiments are possiblein which the viewing device 500 may take any of a variety of otherphysical forms. By way of example, another possible physicalconfiguration is that of a pair of glasses in which one or more cameras570 are oriented to face forward from the face of an operator wearingthe glasses, and one or more displays 580 are positioned to visuallypresent images captured by the camera(s) 570 to one or both eyes of theoperator.

In the physical configuration depicted in FIGS. 2A-B, an operator mayview objects in the surroundings of the current location “through” theviewing device 500 by positioning the viewing device 500 between one orboth eyes and those objects such that the camera 570 faces towards thoseobjects and the display 580 faces towards the eyes. FIG. 3 illustratesan example of just such positioning of the viewing device 500. Uponbeing so positioned, an eye 18 of an operator may look at scenery 17 inthe vicinity of the current location by looking at images captured of itby the camera 570 on the display 580. In this manner, the viewing device500 becomes a “virtual window pane” through which the operator may viewthe surroundings. As also depicted, the eye tracker 575 also facestowards the eye 18 when this physical configuration of the viewingdevice is so positioned to track movements of the eye 18.

Returning to FIG. 1, in executing the collection routine 540, theprocessor component 550 further operates the interface 590 (or anothercomponent able to couple the viewing device 500 to the network 999) toretrieve the location data 330 therefrom. More specifically, theprocessor component 550 transmits at least a portion of the locationdata 530 indicating the current location and/or the current orientationto the server 300 and awaits receipt of the location data 330 therefrom.The location data 330 includes information identifying items in thesurroundings in the vicinity of the current location correlated toindications of direction and/or distance from the current location ofeach of those items. In some embodiments, the processor component 550transmits an indication of the current location to the server 300, butnot the current orientation. In such embodiments, the location data 330may include information identifying items at locations in thesurroundings that may be in any direction from the current location. Inother embodiments, the processor component 550 transmits an indicationof the current orientation, as well as the current location, to theserver 300. The processor component 550 may also transmit an indicationof the height and/or width of the field of view of the camera 570 to theserver 300. In such other embodiments, the location data 330 may belimited to items in a portion of the surroundings determined by theserver 300 to be likely to be within the field of view of the camera570, given its orientation and/or the size (e.g., the height and/orwidth) of its field of view.

In various embodiments, the location server 300 incorporates one or moreof a processor component 350, a storage 360 and an interface 390 tocouple the location server 300 to the network 999. The storage 360stores one or more of a control routine 340 and the location data 330.The control routine 340 incorporates a sequence of instructionsoperative on the processor component 350 in its role as a main processorcomponent 350 of the location server 300 to implement logic to performvarious functions. In executing the control routine 340, the processorcomponent 350 operates the interface 390 receive the location data 530from the viewing device 500 to employ in generating the location data330 to transmit to the viewing device 500. In instances where thelocation data 530 includes the current location of the viewing device500, but not the current orientation, the processor component 350generates a version of the location data 330 that identifies items atlocations in the vicinity of the current location that may be in anydirection from the current location. However, in instances where thelocation data 530 includes the current orientation and/or size of fieldof view of the camera 570 in addition to the current location, theprocessor component 350 generates a version of the location data 330that may be limited to identifying items in a portion of thesurroundings in the vicinity of current location determined by theprocessor component 350 to be likely to be within the field of view ofthe camera 570.

Returning to the viewing device 500, the processor component 550 alsooperates the eye tracker 575 to track movement of at least one of theoperator's eyes 18 as the operator views the images captured by thecamera 570 on the display 580. The eye tracker 575 may be based on anyof a variety of eye tracking techniques, including projecting one ormore beams of infrared (IR) light tracked with IR cameras, and/or usingan array of cameras to view angular movements of one or both eyes 18. Inexecuting the collection routine 540, the processor component 550 atleast determines what portion of the display 580 the operator is gazingat with the eyes 18.

As familiar to those skilled in the art, eyesight typically involves acombination of relatively high-speed movements of the eyes (oftenreferred to as “saccades”) between eye positions at which the eyesremain briefly fixed (often referred to as “fixations”). It iscommonplace to conceive of staring or fixing a gaze on an object aslooking continuously at that object without moving the eyes to look awayfrom it. However, so-called “staring” at an object actually does notentail disrupting the occurrences of saccades. Instead, saccadescontinue to occur and “staring” at an object entails the occurrence of arelatively high proportion of fixations during which the eyes look atthe object. In other words, “staring” at an object entails thedirections at which the eyes look during fixations becoming less randomand more frequently directed at that object. Thus, in determining whatportion of the display an operator is gazing at, the processor component550 may implement a form of low-pass filter in tracking eye movements toessentially filter out the saccades and/or the fixations during whichthe eyes (e.g., the eye 18) look in random directions.

In some embodiments, after determining what portion of the display anoperator is gazing at, the processor component 550 may employ acombination of characteristics of the viewing device 500 specified inthe device data 535 and indications in the location data 330 ofdirections of items from the current location to derive what item theoperator is gazing at. As previously discussed, the device data 535 mayinclude specifications of the field of view of the camera 570. Thedevice data 535 may also include specifications of the display 580,thereby enabling calculations to correlate a portion of the display 580gazed at by the operator to a specific line of sight in the field ofview of the camera 570. The specific line of sight is essentially thedirection in which the operator is effectively gazing through thedisplay 580 and the camera 570. The processor component 550 may then usethe location data 330 to identify one or more items of possible interestalong the line sight. Stated differently, the line of sight iscorrelated to one or more items of possible interest using the locationdata 330. Still further, the processor component 550 may additionallyemploy the location data 330 to correlate that line of sight to one ormore neighboring items that are within a specified distance of theitem(s) of possible interest and/or within a specified vicinity of theline of sight (e.g., within a specified maximum offset angle from theline of sight within the field of view of the camera 570). The processorcomponent stores at least an indication of the direction of the line ofsight from the current location in which the operator gazes throughviewing device 500 as the gaze data 533. In embodiments in whichexecution of the collection routine 540 results in the processorcomponent 550 correlating the line of sight to at least one item ofpossible interest and/or one or more neighboring items, the processorcomponent 550 may additionally store indications of the item(s) ofpossible interest and/or neighboring items as part of the gaze data 533.

As previously discussed, in executing the viewing routine 545, theprocessor component 550 recurringly retrieves images captured by thecamera 570 and visually presents them on the display 580 for viewing byan operator. In executing the viewing routine 545, the processorcomponent 550 also visually presents on the display 580 at least anindicator of an item of possible interest found to be in the line ofsight from the current location correlated to the portion of the display580 at which the operator gazes. In embodiments in which the processorcomponent 550 was caused by the collection routine to identify and storeindications in the gaze data 533 of both an item of possible interestand one or more neighboring items, the processor component 550 may becaused by the viewing routine 545 to additionally visually present oneor more indicators of the neighboring items on the display 580. However,in embodiments in which the processor component 550 was cause tocorrelate the portion of the display 580 gazed at to a line of sightfrom the current location, but not to use that line of sight to identifyitems therealong, the processor component 550 may be caused by theviewing routine 545 to identify an item of possible interest and/orneighboring items. Stated differently, in different embodiments, thecorrelation of items of interest to a line of sight in which theoperator gazes through the camera 570 and the display 580 may beperformed through execution of the collection routine 540 or throughexecution of the viewing routine 545. Thus, in different embodiments,the collection routine 540 may or may not provide more support to theviewing routine 545 in employing eye tracking to identify item(s) ofpossible interest for which indicators may be visually presented on thedisplay.

FIGS. 4A-C, together, depict an example of a visual presentation of anaugmented reality view 830 on the display 580. As depicted, the scenery17 captured by the camera 570 is visually presented on the display 580,and is overlain by indicators 813 of an item of possible interest and/orat least one neighboring item. An “eye” symbol is also depicted to donothing more than to indicate the portion of the display 580 at whichthe eye 18 of the operator gazes. The eye symbol should not be taken asa graphical element that is actually visually presented on the display580 at any time.

In FIG. 4A, the depicted position of the eye symbol indicates that theoperator is gazing at a portion of the display that is more or lesstowards the center of the display. In some embodiments, to avoidobscuring what is visually presented at the portion of the display atwhich the operator gazes, the indicator 813 of the item of possibleinterest determined by correlation to be at that portion is visuallypresented on the display 580 at a location somewhat offset from thatportion of the display. By way of example the indicators 813 for “BerryPuff” and “Joe's Joe” are visually presented at locations to either sideof the portion of the display at which the operator gazes.

In FIG. 4B, the portion of the display 580 at which the operator gazeshas changed in comparison to FIG. 4A, specifically shifting to the leftand slightly downward. A new correlation of the portion of the display580 gazed at to items indicated in the location data 330 to be in thenew direction identifies one or both of “Bob's” and “Berry Puff” to beitems of possible interest and/or a neighboring item. Again, theindicators 813 for each are visually presented somewhat offset from theportion of the display 580 at which the operator gazes. In FIG. 4C, theportion of the display 580 at which the operator gazes has changedagain, specifically shifting back to the right and significantly upward.A new correlation of the portion of the display 580 gazed at to itemsindicated in the location data 330 to be in the new direction identifiesone or both of “Higher Book Learning” and “Toys 'n Such” to be items ofpossible interest and/or a neighboring item. And again, the indicators813 for each are visually presented somewhat offset from the portion ofthe display 580 at which the operator gazes. Also, as depicted in FIG.4C, what is identified as an item of possible interest may change with achange in elevation as well as a change in orientation on a horizontalplane in some embodiments. Thus, as made clear in comparing FIGS. 4A and4C, a change in elevation (e.g., along the height of a tall building)may result in identification of a different item of possible interestwhere different items are indicated in the location data 330 aspositioned at different elevations.

FIG. 5 depicts another example of a visual presentation of an augmentedreality view 830 on the display 580. The same scenery 17 captured by thecamera 570 is visually presented on the display 580 in the same locationand manner as in FIGS. 4A-C. However, the visual presentation of thescenery 17 is overlain by an alternate example of an indicator 813 thatis configured to be transparent, versus the non-transparent indicators813 of FIGS. 4A-C. As also depicted, this transparent example of anindicator 813 is positioned to overlie the portion of the display 580 atwhich the operator gazes, its transparency enabling the operator tostill view the item at which they gaze by gazing through the indicator813.

In various embodiments, each of the processor components 350 and 550 mayinclude any of a wide variety of commercially available processors.Further, one or more of these processor components may include multipleprocessors, a multi-threaded processor, a multi-core processor (whetherthe multiple cores coexist on the same or separate dies), and/or amulti-processor architecture of some other variety by which multiplephysically separate processors are in some way linked.

In various embodiments, each of the storages 360 and 560 may be based onany of a wide variety of information storage technologies, possiblyincluding volatile technologies requiring the uninterrupted provision ofelectric power, and possibly including technologies entailing the use ofmachine-readable storage media that may or may not be removable. Thus,each of these storages may include any of a wide variety of types (orcombination of types) of storage device, including without limitation,read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDR-DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory (e.g., ferroelectric polymer memory), ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, one or more individual ferromagneticdisk drives, or a plurality of storage devices organized into one ormore arrays (e.g., multiple ferromagnetic disk drives organized into aRedundant Array of Independent Disks array, or RAID array). It should benoted that although each of these storages is depicted as a singleblock, one or more of these may include multiple storage devices thatmay be based on differing storage technologies. Thus, for example, oneor more of each of these depicted storages may represent a combinationof an optical drive or flash memory card reader by which programs and/ordata may be stored and conveyed on some form of machine-readable storagemedia, a ferromagnetic disk drive to store programs and/or data locallyfor a relatively extended period, and one or more volatile solid statememory devices enabling relatively quick access to programs and/or data(e.g., SRAM or DRAM). It should also be noted that each of thesestorages may be made up of multiple storage components based onidentical storage technology, but which may be maintained separately asa result of specialization in use (e.g., some DRAM devices employed as amain storage while other DRAM devices employed as a distinct framebuffer of a graphics controller).

In various embodiments, each of the interfaces 390 and 590 may employany of a wide variety of signaling technologies enabling computingdevices to be coupled to other devices as has been described. Each ofthese interfaces may include circuitry providing at least some of therequisite functionality to enable such coupling. However, each of theseinterfaces may also be at least partially implemented with sequences ofinstructions executed by corresponding ones of the processor components(e.g., to implement a protocol stack or other features). Whereelectrically and/or optically conductive cabling is employed, theseinterfaces may employ signaling and/or protocols conforming to any of avariety of industry standards, including without limitation, RS-232C,RS-422, USB, Ethernet (IEEE-802.3) or IEEE-1394. Where the use ofwireless signal transmission is entailed, these interfaces may employsignaling and/or protocols conforming to any of a variety of industrystandards, including without limitation, IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g,802.16, 802.20 (commonly referred to as “Mobile Broadband WirelessAccess”); Bluetooth; ZigBee; or a cellular radiotelephone service suchas GSM with General Packet Radio Service (GSM/GPRS), CDMA/1xRTT,Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE), Evolution DataOnly/Optimized (EV-DO), Evolution For Data and Voice (EV-DV), High SpeedDownlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA),4G LTE, etc.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a portion of an embodiment of theaugmented reality viewing system 1000 of FIG. 1 in greater detail. Morespecifically, aspects are depicted of the operating environment of anembodiment of the viewing device 500. As recognizable to those skilledin the art, the collection routine 540 and the viewing routine 545,including the components of which each is composed, are selected to beoperative on whatever type of processor or processors that are selectedto implement the processor components 550.

The collection routine 540 may include a location component 5405 tooperate the interface 590 to receive GPS signals and/or signals of oneor more APs to determine the current location of the viewing device 500.The location component 5405 may store an indication of the currentlocation as part of the location data 530.

The collection routine 540 may include an orientation component 5401 tooperate the compass 510 and/or the elevation sensor 515 to determine thecurrent orientation of the camera 570. The orientation component 5401may store an indication of the current orientation as part of thelocation data 530.

The collection routine 540 may include a communications component 5409to operate the interface 590 to transmit at least a portion of thelocation data 530 to another computing device (e.g., the location server300). As previously discussed, the portion of the location data 530transmitted to another computing device includes at least an indicationof the current location to enable the other computing device to respondby providing the location data 330 to the viewing device 500. As alsodiscussed, the location data 330 at least identifies one or more itemsin the surroundings in the vicinity of the current location, andidentifies the locations of those items in the surroundings relative tothe current location.

The collection routine 540 may include a capture component 5407 tooperate the camera 570 to capture images of the surroundings in thevicinity of the current location of the viewing device 500 for visualpresentation on the display 580. The capture component 5407 may storethe captured images as part of the visual data 537.

The collection routine 540 and the viewing routine 545 may includecorrelation components 5403 and 5453, respectively. The correlationcomponent 5403 operates the eye tracker 575 to at least determine whatportion of the display 580 is gazed at by at least one eye 18 of anoperator, and to correlate the gaze at that portion of the display 580to a line of sight from the camera 570 along which the gaze iseffectively directed. In so doing, the correlation component mayretrieve specifications of the size and/or resolution of the display 580and of the resolution and/or size of the field of view of the camera 570from the device data 535 as inputs to calculations to determine thedirection of the line of sight from the camera 570 that correlations tothe portion of the display 580 gazed at.

In some embodiments, the correlation component 5403 employs the locationdata 330 received from another computing device to correlate thedirection of the line of sight along which the gaze of the operator'seye 18 is directed to one or more items of possible interest along thatline of sight. The correlation component 5403 may store an indication ofthe derive direction of the line of sight as part of the gaze data 533.The correlation component 5453 may retrieve the direction of the line ofsight from the gaze data 533 and employ that direction and the locationdata 330 to identify one or more neighboring items that are within aspecified distance of item(s) of possible interest and/or are within aspecified distance of a point along the line of sight. Thus, thecorrelation components 5403 and 5453 may cooperate to identify item(s)of possible interest and/or neighboring item(s) in such embodiments.Alternatively, the correlation component 5403 may perform theidentification of one or both of item(s) of possible interest orneighboring item(s) itself, and may provide indications of theidentities and locations of item(s) of possible interest and/orneighboring item(s) to the viewing routine 545.

The viewing routine 545 may include a presentation component 5458 toretrieve the images captured by the camera 570 of the surroundings inthe vicinity of the current location of the viewing device 500, andvisually present them on the display 580. Regardless of which componentsidentify item(s) of possible interest, the presentation component 5458visually presents indicator(s) 813 of the item(s) of possible interestand/or neighboring item(s) on the display 580 in a manner that overliesthe visual presentation of the images captured by the camera 570. Aspreviously discussed, the indicators 813 may be visually presented in amanner in which they are positioned adjacent to, but not overlapping,the portion of the display 580 gazed at by an eye 18 of the operator.Alternatively, as previously discussed, the indicators 813 may be atleast somewhat transparent such that one may overlie the portion of thedisplay 580 that is gazed at while not significantly obscuring viewingof the scenery 17 visually presented at that portion.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow 2100. The logic flow2100 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed byone or more embodiments described herein. More specifically, the logicflow 2100 may illustrate operations performed by the processor component550 in executing at least one or both of the collection routine 540 andthe viewing routine 545, and/or performed by other component(s) of theviewing device 500.

At 2110, a processor component of a viewing device (e.g., the processorcomponent 550 of the viewing device 500) determines a current locationof the viewing device, and determines an orientation of the camera ofthe viewing device (e.g., the camera 570) relative to the currentlocation at 2120. As previously discussed, it is envisioned that thecamera is co-located in a casing with other components of viewing devicesuch that determinations of the current location and orientation applyto the camera and the viewing device as a whole.

At 2130, an indication of at least the current location is transmittedto a location server (e.g., the location server 300), and location dataidentifying at least items in the field of view of the camera in thesurroundings in the vicinity of the current location is received at2140. As previously discussed, the current orientation and/or anindication of the size of the field of view of the camera may betransmitted to the location server to enable the location server tolimit the information concerning items in the surroundings in thevicinity of the current location to only those in the field of view ofthe camera. However, it may be that only the current location istransmitted to the location server 300 such that the location datareceived therefrom identifies items at locations in the surroundingsthat may be all around the current location of the viewing device,leaving it to the viewing device to determine which ones are in thefield of view.

At 2150, eye movements of at least one eye of an operator of the viewingdevice (e.g., the eye 18) are tracked as the operator views a display ofthe viewing device (e.g., the display 580) on which scenery of thesurroundings captured by the camera (e.g., the scenery 17) is visuallypresented thereon to determine what portion of the display is gazed atby that at least one eye. At 2160, the portion of the display that isgazed at is correlated to a line of sight from the camera to a portionof the surroundings, along which may be an item of possible interest tothe operator. As previously discussed, various characteristics of thedisplay and the camera may be employed in calculations to derive thedirection of the line of sight from the location of the camera and alongwhich the operator is effectively gazing at a portion of the scenerythrough the combination of the camera and display in a manner in whichthe viewing device is used as a “virtual window pane.”

At 2170, the direction of the line of sight and the location datareceived from the location server are used to correlate to identify oneor more items of possible interest that may exist along the line ofsight. As previously discussed, one or more neighboring items may alsobe identified.

At 2180, an indicator identifying an item of possible interest (e.g.,one of the indicators 813) is visually presented on the display in amanner that overlies the visual presentation of the scenery captured bythe camera. As previously discussed, the indicator may be visuallypresented adjacent to the portion of the display gazed at so as to notobscure the scenery visually presented at that portion, and/or theindicator may be made at least partly transparent to enable itsplacement to overlie the scenery at that portion while still allowingthe scenery to be viewed through the indicator.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow 2200. The logic flow2200 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed byone or more embodiments described herein. More specifically, the logicflow 2200 may illustrate operations performed by either the processorcomponent 350 in executing one or more executable portions of thecontrol routine 340, and/or performed by other component(s) of thelocation server 300.

At 2210, a processor component of a location server (e.g., the processorcomponent 350 of the location server 300) receives an indication from aviewing device (e.g., the viewing device 500) of the current location ofthe viewing device and the current orientation of its camera. Aspreviously discussed, such a viewing device may transmit both thecurrent location and current orientation, or may transmit the currentlocation without transmitting the current orientation.

At 2220, items that are in the surroundings in the vicinity of thecurrent location are identified, and that are in the field of view ofthe camera of the viewing device, are identified. As previouslydiscussed, the location server may also receive an indication of thesize of the field of view of the camera of the viewing device as afurther input to identifying what items are in the field of view of thecamera. At 2230, the location server transmits a location dataindicating at least the identities of those items and their locationsrelative to the current location of the viewing device to the viewingdevice.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a processing architecture 3000suitable for implementing various embodiments as previously described.More specifically, the processing architecture 3000 (or variantsthereof) may be implemented as part of the computing device 500. Itshould be noted that components of the processing architecture 3000 aregiven reference numbers in which the last two digits correspond to thelast two digits of reference numbers of at least some of the componentsearlier depicted and described as part of the computing device 500. Thisis done as an aid to correlating components of each.

The processing architecture 3000 may include various elements commonlyemployed in digital processing, including without limitation, one ormore processors, multi-core processors, co-processors, memory units,chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces, oscillators, timingdevices, video cards, audio cards, multimedia input/output (I/O)components, power supplies, etc. As used in this application, the terms“system” and “component” are intended to refer to an entity of acomputing device in which digital processing is carried out, that entitybeing hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, orsoftware in execution, examples of which are provided by this depictedexemplary processing architecture. For example, a component can be, butis not limited to being, a process running on a processor component, theprocessor component itself, a storage device (e.g., a hard disk drive,multiple storage drives in an array, etc.) that may employ an opticaland/or magnetic storage medium, an software object, an executablesequence of instructions, a thread of execution, a program, and/or anentire computing device (e.g., an entire computer). By way ofillustration, both an application running on a server and the server canbe a component. One or more components can reside within a processand/or thread of execution, and a component can be localized on onecomputing device and/or distributed between two or more computingdevices. Further, components may be communicatively coupled to eachother by various types of communications media to coordinate operations.The coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directionalexchange of information. For instance, the components may communicateinformation in the form of signals communicated over the communicationsmedia. The information can be implemented as signals allocated to one ormore signal lines. A message (including a command, status, address ordata message) may be one of such signals or may be a plurality of suchsignals, and may be transmitted either serially or substantially inparallel through any of a variety of connections and/or interfaces.

As depicted, in implementing the processing architecture 3000, acomputing device may include at least a processor component 950, astorage 960, an interface 990 to other devices, and a coupling 955. Aswill be explained, depending on various aspects of a computing deviceimplementing the processing architecture 3000, including its intendeduse and/or conditions of use, such a computing device may furtherinclude additional components, such as without limitation, a displayinterface 985, a camera 970, a compass 910, an elevation sensor 915,etc.

The coupling 955 may include one or more buses, point-to-pointinterconnects, transceivers, buffers, crosspoint switches, and/or otherconductors and/or logic that communicatively couples at least theprocessor component 950 to the storage 960. Coupling 955 may furthercouple the processor component 950 to one or more of the interface 990,the audio subsystem 970 and the display interface 985 (depending onwhich of these and/or other components are also present). With theprocessor component 950 being so coupled by couplings 955, the processorcomponent 950 is able to perform the various ones of the tasks describedat length, above, for whichever one(s) of the aforedescribed computingdevices implement the processing architecture 3000. Coupling 955 may beimplemented with any of a variety of technologies or combinations oftechnologies by which signals are optically and/or electricallyconveyed. Further, at least portions of couplings 955 may employ timingsand/or protocols conforming to any of a wide variety of industrystandards, including without limitation, Accelerated Graphics Port(AGP), CardBus, Extended Industry Standard Architecture (E-ISA), MicroChannel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral Component Interconnect(Extended) (PCI-X), PCI Express (PCI-E), Personal Computer Memory CardInternational Association (PCMCIA) bus, HyperTransport™, QuickPath, andthe like.

As previously discussed, the processor component 950 (corresponding tothe processor components 550) may include any of a wide variety ofcommercially available processors, employing any of a wide variety oftechnologies and implemented with one or more cores physically combinedin any of a number of ways.

As previously discussed, the storage 960 (corresponding to the storage560) may be made up of one or more distinct storage devices based on anyof a wide variety of technologies or combinations of technologies. Morespecifically, as depicted, the storage 960 may include one or more of avolatile storage 961 (e.g., solid state storage based on one or moreforms of RAM technology), a non-volatile storage 962 (e.g., solid state,ferromagnetic or other storage not requiring a constant provision ofelectric power to preserve their contents), and a removable mediastorage 963 (e.g., removable disc or solid state memory card storage bywhich information may be conveyed between computing devices). Thisdepiction of the storage 960 as possibly including multiple distincttypes of storage is in recognition of the commonplace use of more thanone type of storage device in computing devices in which one typeprovides relatively rapid reading and writing capabilities enabling morerapid manipulation of data by the processor component 950 (but possiblyusing a “volatile” technology constantly requiring electric power) whileanother type provides relatively high density of non-volatile storage(but likely provides relatively slow reading and writing capabilities).

Given the often different characteristics of different storage devicesemploying different technologies, it is also commonplace for suchdifferent storage devices to be coupled to other portions of a computingdevice through different storage controllers coupled to their differingstorage devices through different interfaces. By way of example, wherethe volatile storage 961 is present and is based on RAM technology, thevolatile storage 961 may be communicatively coupled to coupling 955through a storage controller 965 a providing an appropriate interface tothe volatile storage 961 that perhaps employs row and column addressing,and where the storage controller 965 a may perform row refreshing and/orother maintenance tasks to aid in preserving information stored withinthe volatile storage 961. By way of another example, where thenon-volatile storage 962 is present and includes one or moreferromagnetic and/or solid-state disk drives, the non-volatile storage962 may be communicatively coupled to coupling 955 through a storagecontroller 965 b providing an appropriate interface to the non-volatilestorage 962 that perhaps employs addressing of blocks of informationand/or of cylinders and sectors. By way of still another example, wherethe removable media storage 963 is present and includes one or moreoptical and/or solid-state disk drives employing one or more pieces ofmachine-readable storage medium 969, the removable media storage 963 maybe communicatively coupled to coupling 955 through a storage controller965 c providing an appropriate interface to the removable media storage963 that perhaps employs addressing of blocks of information, and wherethe storage controller 965 c may coordinate read, erase and writeoperations in a manner specific to extending the lifespan of themachine-readable storage medium 969.

One or the other of the volatile storage 961 or the non-volatile storage962 may include an article of manufacture in the form of amachine-readable storage media on which a routine including a sequenceof instructions executable by the processor component 950 to implementvarious embodiments may be stored, depending on the technologies onwhich each is based. By way of example, where the non-volatile storage962 includes ferromagnetic-based disk drives (e.g., so-called “harddrives”), each such disk drive typically employs one or more rotatingplatters on which a coating of magnetically responsive particles isdeposited and magnetically oriented in various patterns to storeinformation, such as a sequence of instructions, in a manner akin tostorage medium such as a floppy diskette. By way of another example, thenon-volatile storage 962 may be made up of banks of solid-state storagedevices to store information, such as sequences of instructions, in amanner akin to a compact flash card. Again, it is commonplace to employdiffering types of storage devices in a computing device at differenttimes to store executable routines and/or data. Thus, a routineincluding a sequence of instructions to be executed by the processorcomponent 950 to implement various embodiments may initially be storedon the machine-readable storage medium 969, and the removable mediastorage 963 may be subsequently employed in copying that routine to thenon-volatile storage 962 for longer term storage not requiring thecontinuing presence of the machine-readable storage medium 969 and/orthe volatile storage 961 to enable more rapid access by the processorcomponent 950 as that routine is executed.

As previously discussed, the interface 990 (corresponding to theinterface 590) may employ any of a variety of signaling technologiescorresponding to any of a variety of communications technologies thatmay be employed to communicatively couple a computing device to one ormore other devices. Again, one or both of various forms of wired orwireless signaling may be employed to enable the processor component 950to interact with input/output devices (e.g., the depicted examplekeyboard 920 or printer 925) and/or other computing devices, possiblythrough a network (e.g., the network 999) or an interconnected set ofnetworks. In recognition of the often greatly different character ofmultiple types of signaling and/or protocols that must often besupported by any one computing device, the interface 990 is depicted asincluding multiple different interface controllers 995 a, 995 b and 995c. The interface controller 995 a may employ any of a variety of typesof wired digital serial interface or radio frequency wireless interfaceto receive serially transmitted messages from user input devices, suchas the depicted keyboard 920. The interface controller 995 b may employany of a variety of cabling-based or wireless signaling, timings and/orprotocols to access other computing devices through the depicted network999 (perhaps a network made up of one or more links, smaller networks,or perhaps the Internet). The interface 995 c may employ any of avariety of electrically conductive cabling enabling the use of eitherserial or parallel signal transmission to convey data to the depictedprinter 925. Other examples of devices that may be communicativelycoupled through one or more interface controllers of the interface 990include, without limitation, microphones, remote controls, stylus pens,card readers, finger print readers, virtual reality interaction gloves,graphical input tablets, joysticks, other keyboards, retina scanners,the touch input component of touch screens, trackballs, various sensors,a camera or camera array to monitor movement of persons to acceptcommands and/or data signaled by those persons via gestures and/orfacial expressions, laser printers, inkjet printers, mechanical robots,milling machines, etc.

Where a computing device is communicatively coupled to (or perhaps,actually incorporates) a display (e.g., the depicted example display980, corresponding to one or more of the displays 180 and 380), such acomputing device implementing the processing architecture 3000 may alsoinclude the display interface 985. Although more generalized types ofinterface may be employed in communicatively coupling to a display, thesomewhat specialized additional processing often required in visuallydisplaying various forms of content on a display, as well as thesomewhat specialized nature of the cabling-based interfaces used, oftenmakes the provision of a distinct display interface desirable. Wiredand/or wireless signaling technologies that may be employed by thedisplay interface 985 in a communicative coupling of the display 980 maymake use of signaling and/or protocols that conform to any of a varietyof industry standards, including without limitation, any of a variety ofanalog video interfaces, Digital Video Interface (DVI), DisplayPort,etc.

More generally, the various elements of the computing devices describedand depicted herein may include various hardware elements, softwareelements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements mayinclude devices, logic devices, components, processors, microprocessors,circuits, processor components, circuit elements (e.g., transistors,resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits,application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logicdevices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gatearray (FPGA), memory units, logic gates, registers, semiconductordevice, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of softwareelements may include software components, programs, applications,computer programs, application programs, system programs, softwaredevelopment programs, machine programs, operating system software,middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines,functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application programinterfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, codesegments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or anycombination thereof. However, determining whether an embodiment isimplemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary inaccordance with any number of factors, such as desired computationalrate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input datarates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and otherdesign or performance constraints, as desired for a givenimplementation.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “one embodiment”or “an embodiment” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.Further, some embodiments may be described using the expression“coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. These terms arenot necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, someembodiments may be described using the terms “connected” and/or“coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physicalor electrical contact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, mayalso mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with eachother, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.Furthermore, aspects or elements from different embodiments may becombined.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided toallow a reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technicaldisclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not beused to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen thatvarious features are grouped together in a single embodiment for thepurpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is notto be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimedembodiments require more features than are expressly recited in eachclaim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matterlies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thusthe following claims are hereby incorporated into the DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which”are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms“comprising” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,”“second,” “third,” and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are notintended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

What has been described above includes examples of the disclosedarchitecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe everyconceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one ofordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinationsand permutations are possible. Accordingly, the novel architecture isintended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variationsthat fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thedetailed disclosure now turns to providing examples that pertain tofurther embodiments. The examples provided below are not intended to belimiting.

In some examples, an apparatus to present an augmented reality viewincludes a processor component; a presentation component for executionby the processor component to visually present images captured by acamera on a display, and to visually present an indicator identifying anitem of possible interest in the captured images on the displayoverlying the visual presentation of the captured images; and acorrelation component for execution by the processor component to trackeye movement to determine a portion of the display gazed at by an eye,and to correlate the portion of the display to the item of possibleinterest.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include an interface toreceive at least one of global positioning system (GPS) satellitesignals or signals from a wireless network access point (AP); and alocation component for execution by the processor component to employthe received signals to determine a current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include acommunications component for execution by the processor component totransmit the current location to a computing device and to receive alocation data identifying items in a vicinity of the current locationand specifying locations of the items relative to the current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include an orientationcomponent for execution by the processor component to determine acurrent orientation of the camera relative to the current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the correlation component may employ thecurrent orientation, the portion of the display and the location data toidentify the item of possible interest.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include an orientationcomponent for execution by the processor component to determine acurrent orientation of the camera relative to a current location; and aninterface to transmit the current location and the current orientationto a computing device and to receive a location data identifying itemsin a vicinity of the current location and in a field of view of thecamera, the location data specifying locations of the items relative tothe current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the correlation component may employ thecurrent orientation, the portion of the display and the location data toidentify the item of possible interest.

Additionally or alternatively, the correlation component may employcharacteristics of the display and characteristics of the camera todetermine a line of sight in the field of view of the camera thatcorrelates to the portion of the display, and may employ the currentorientation and the location data to correlate the line of sight to theitem of possible interest.

Additionally or alternatively, the correlation component may correlatethe portion of the display to a neighboring item located within aspecified distance from the item of possible interest, and thepresentation component to visually present another indicator identifyingthe neighboring item on the display overlying the visual presentation ofthe captured images.

Additionally or alternatively, the presentation component may visuallypresent the indicator on the display offset from the portion of thedisplay to leave the view of the captured images at the portion of thedisplay unobscured.

Additionally or alternatively, the presentation component may visuallypresent the indicator on the portion of the display with a degree oftransparency to enable viewing of the captured images at the portion ofthe display through the indicator.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include at least one ofan eye tracker, the camera and the display.

In some examples, an apparatus to present an augmented reality view mayinclude a processor component; a correlation component for execution bythe processor component to correlate a portion of a display gazed at byan eye to a line of sight from a camera in a field of view of thecamera, and to identify an item in the line of sight as an item ofpossible interest; and a presentation component for execution by theprocessor component to visually present scenery in the field of view ofthe camera on the display, and to visually present an indicatoridentifying the item of possible interest on the display overlying thescenery.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include an interface toreceive at least one of global positioning system (GPS) satellitesignals or signals from a wireless network access point (AP), and alocation component for execution by the processor component to employthe received signals to determine a current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include acommunications component for execution by the processor component totransmit the current location to a computing device and to receive alocation data identifying items in a vicinity of the current locationand specifying locations of the items relative to the current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the apparatus may include an orientationcomponent for execution by the processor component to determine acurrent orientation of the camera relative to the current location, thecommunications component to transmit the current orientation and anindication of a size of the field of view to the computing device, andthe items identified in the location data limited to items within thefield of view.

Additionally or alternatively, the correlation component may correlatethe line of sight to a neighboring item located within a specifieddistance of a point along the line of sight, and the presentationcomponent to visually present another indicator identifying theneighboring item on the display overlying the scenery.

In some examples, a computer-implemented method for presenting anaugmented reality view may include visually presenting an indicatoridentifying an item of possible interest on a display overlying a visualpresentation of images captured by a camera on the display, tracking eyemovement to determine a portion of the display gazed at by an eye, andcorrelating the portion of the display to the item of possible interestin the captured images.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include receiving at leastone of global positioning system (GPS) satellite signals or signals froma wireless network access point (AP), and employing the received signalsto determine a current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include transmitting thecurrent location to a computing device, and receiving a location datathat identifies items in a vicinity of the current location andspecifies locations of the items relative to the current location.Additionally or alternatively, the method may include determining acurrent orientation of the camera relative to the current location, andtransmitting the current orientation and an indication of a size of afield of view to the computing device, the items identified in thelocation data limited to items within the field of view.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include correlating thecurrent orientation, the portion of the display and the location data toidentify the item of possible interest.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include correlating theportion of the display to a line of sight from the camera in a field ofview of the camera to identify an item in the line of sight as an itemof possible interest.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include correlating theline of sight to a neighboring item located within a specified distanceof a point along the line of sight, and visually presenting anotherindicator identifying the neighboring item on the display overlying thevisual presentation of the captured images.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include visuallypresenting the indicator on the display offset from the portion of thedisplay to leave the visual presentation of the captured images at theportion of the display unobscured.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include visuallypresenting the indicator on the portion of the display with a degree oftransparency to enable viewing of the capture images visually presentedat the portion of the display through the indicator.

In some examples, at least one machine-readable storage medium mayinclude instructions that when executed by a computing device, cause thecomputing device to tracking eye movement to determine a portion of adisplay gazed at by an eye; correlating the portion of the display to anitem of possible interest in images captured by a camera; and visuallypresent an indicator identifying the item of possible interest on thedisplay overlying a visual presentation of the captured images on thedisplay.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused toreceive at least one of global positioning system (GPS) satellitesignals or signals from a wireless network access point (AP), and employthe received signals to determine a current location.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused totransmit the current location to a computing device, and receive alocation data that identifies items in a vicinity of the currentlocation and specifies locations of the items relative to the currentlocation. Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may becaused to determine a current orientation of the camera relative to thecurrent location; and transmit the current orientation and an indicationof a size of a field of view to the computing device, the itemsidentified in the location data limited to items within the field ofview.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused tocorrelate the current orientation, the portion of the display and thelocation data to identify the item of possible interest.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused tocorrelate the portion of the display to a line of sight from the camerain a field of view of the camera to identify an item in the line ofsight as an item of possible interest.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused tocorrelate the line of sight to a neighboring item located within aspecified distance of a point along the line of sight, and visuallypresent another indicator identifying the neighboring item on thedisplay overlying the visual presentation of the captured images.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused tovisually present the indicator on the display offset from the portion ofthe display to leave the visual presentation of the captured images atthe portion of the display unobscured.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused tovisually present the indicator on the portion of the display with adegree of transparency to enable viewing of the captured images visuallypresented at the portion of the display through the indicator.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be caused to

In some embodiments, at least one machine-readable storage medium mayinclude instructions that when executed by a computing device, cause thecomputing device to perform any of the above.

In some embodiments, an device to compress and/or visually present videoframes may include means for performing any of the above.

1-25. (canceled)
 26. An apparatus to present an augmented reality viewcomprising: a processor component; a presentation component forexecution by the processor component to visually present images capturedby a camera on a display, and to visually present an indicatoridentifying an item of possible interest in the captured images on thedisplay overlying the visual presentation of the captured images; and acorrelation component for execution by the processor component to trackeye movement to determine a portion of the display gazed at by an eye,and to correlate the portion of the display to the item of possibleinterest.
 27. The apparatus of claim 26, comprising: an interface toreceive at least one of global positioning system (GPS) satellitesignals or signals from a wireless network access point (AP); and alocation component for execution by the processor component to employthe received signals to determine a current location.
 28. The apparatusof claim 27, comprising a communications component for execution by theprocessor component to transmit the current location to a computingdevice and to receive a location data identifying items in a vicinity ofthe current location and specifying locations of the items relative tothe current location.
 29. The apparatus of claim 28, comprising anorientation component for execution by the processor component todetermine a current orientation of the camera relative to the currentlocation.
 30. The apparatus of claim 27, comprising: an orientationcomponent for execution by the processor component to determine acurrent orientation of the camera relative to a current location; and aninterface to transmit the current location and the current orientationto a computing device and to receive a location data identifying itemsin a vicinity of the current location and in a field of view of thecamera, the location data specifying locations of the items relative tothe current location.
 31. The apparatus of claim 30, the correlationcomponent to employ the current orientation, the portion of the displayand the location data to identify the item of possible interest.
 32. Theapparatus of claim 26, the correlation component to correlate theportion of the display to a neighboring item located within a specifieddistance from the item of possible interest, and the presentationcomponent to visually present another indicator identifying theneighboring item on the display overlying the visual presentation of thecaptured images.
 33. The apparatus of claim 26, comprising at least oneof an eye tracker, the camera and the display.
 34. An apparatus topresent an augmented reality view comprising: a processor component; acorrelation component for execution by the processor component tocorrelate a portion of a display gazed at by an eye to a line of sightfrom a camera in a field of view of the camera, and to identify an itemin the line of sight as an item of possible interest; and a presentationcomponent for execution by the processor component to visually presentscenery in the field of view of the camera on the display, and tovisually present an indicator identifying the item of possible intereston the display overlying the scenery.
 35. The apparatus of claim 34,comprising: an interface to receive at least one of global positioningsystem (GPS) satellite signals or signals from a wireless network accesspoint (AP); and a location component for execution by the processorcomponent to employ the received signals to determine a currentlocation.
 36. The apparatus of claim 35, comprising a communicationscomponent for execution by the processor component to transmit thecurrent location to a computing device and to receive a location dataidentifying items in a vicinity of the current location and specifyinglocations of the items relative to the current location.
 37. Theapparatus of claim 34, the correlation component to correlate the lineof sight to a neighboring item located within a specified distance of apoint along the line of sight, and the presentation component tovisually present another indicator identifying the neighboring item onthe display overlying the scenery.
 38. A computing-implemented methodfor presenting an augmented reality view comprising: visually presentingan indicator identifying an item of possible interest on a displayoverlying a visual presentation of images captured by a camera on thedisplay; tracking eye movement to determine a portion of the displaygazed at by an eye; and correlating the portion of the display to theitem of possible interest in the captured images.
 39. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 38, comprising: receiving at leastone of global positioning system (GPS) satellite signals or signals froma wireless network access point (AP); and employing the received signalsto determine a current location.
 40. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 39, comprising: transmitting the current location to a computingdevice; and receiving a location data that identifies items in avicinity of the current location and specifies locations of the itemsrelative to the current location.
 41. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 40, comprising: determining a current orientation of the camerarelative to the current location; and transmitting the currentorientation and an indication of a size of a field of view to thecomputing device, the items identified in the location data limited toitems within the field of view.
 42. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 41, comprising correlating the current orientation, the portion ofthe display and the location data to identify the item of possibleinterest.
 43. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, comprisingcorrelating the portion of the display to a line of sight from thecamera in a field of view of the camera to identify an item in the lineof sight as an item of possible interest.
 44. At least onemachine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that whenexecuted by a computing device, cause the computing device to: track eyemovement to determine a portion of a display gazed at by an eye;correlate the portion of the display to an item of possible interest inimages captured by a camera; and visually present an indicatoridentifying the item of possible interest on the display overlying avisual presentation of the captured images on the display.
 45. The atleast one machine-readable storage medium of claim 44, the computingdevice caused to: receive at least one of global positioning system(GPS) satellite signals or signals from a wireless network access point(AP); and employ the received signals to determine a current location.46. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 45, thecomputing device caused to: transmit the current location to a computingdevice; and receive a location data that identifies items in a vicinityof the current location and specifies locations of the items relative tothe current location.
 47. The at least one machine-readable storagemedium of claim 44, the computing device caused to correlate the portionof the display to a line of sight from the camera in a field of view ofthe camera to identify an item in the line of sight as an item ofpossible interest.
 48. The at least one machine-readable storage mediumof claim 47, the computing device caused to: correlate the line of sightto a neighboring item located within a specified distance of a pointalong the line of sight; and visually present another indicatoridentifying the neighboring item on the display overlying the visualpresentation of the captured images.
 49. The at least onemachine-readable storage medium of claim 44, the computing device causedto visually present the indicator on the display offset from the portionof the display to leave the visual presentation of the captured imagesat the portion of the display unobscured.
 50. The at least onemachine-readable storage medium of claim 44, the computing device causedto visually present the indicator on the portion of the display with adegree of transparency to enable viewing of the captured images visuallypresented at the portion of the display through the indicator.